(If the link ever goes away, it’s a take on the Coke ad and says “Open Diabetes” with a quote from Crossfit CEO Greg Glassman that says “Make sure you pour some out for your dead homies.”)

I was pretty angry. I joke about diabetes, but about the day to day stuff, not about how sugar causes diabetes (either type). Actually, nothing gets me to start going off on a soapbox faster than seeing someone post a picture of a donut and call it a “diabetes-nut” or a picture of their Starbucks frap with the caption “cup o’ diabetus.” By the way, these are actual posts that I have seen my own Instagram feed…grrrrrrrr…

But after posting a post about it on my Facebook, I started to think about the tweet from a different perspective. How could we change it to be positive? Open…insulin for all? Open…respect for the types of diabetes? Open…meter accuracy? I think the most important thing that we need to open as people with an autoimmune illness is respect-for others with diabetes, for others with disease and chronic health issues, and for those who need to learn the difference between a funny joke and a mean-spirited joke.

Do you ever have one of those workouts that rock? Most days, I workout and get through it, and while I always feel better at the end of my workout, I rarely end it feeling like I conquered something.

Well, today, I felt like I conquered something!

I love to run. I used to run almost everyday in high school as part of our practices for field hockey (some days I actually went home and ran after practice), and when I got to college, I still ran, but not nearly as much. Since becoming a teacher, I’ve found that I’m only able to run on days when I am not completely exhausted or when my legs don’t ache, which has made me very sad. I do a lot of other workouts (barre, Zumba, other machines), but running is my fave.

So this summer, I’ve been trying to get outside and run when I can just to work on getting my endurance back. So today I woke up and was met with one of those perfect DC days. 78 degrees at 5:00pm with ZERO humidity. Sun shinning. The weather was pretty much screaming my name. So after I got home from setting up my classroom, I headed outside to run.

And today, it was like magic. Everything clicked and I was even able to run a 9:28 mile-my best mile time for quite some time!

My diabetes was a team player for this run! My blood sugar started off high (200ish), but it came down to the perfect place (160)-not too low but not high! And since I ALWAYS drop after I run, being 160 meant that I had some time before I dropped.

Note to self-do not try to start a blog the week before you go on your summer vacation. I kept thinking, “Oh, it’ll be fine, I’ll find time to post something (and read other blogs)!” But, nope. Not at the beach and not in New Orleans. However, I’ve had a great vacation, and since I go back to school in only 5 days, I’m ok with it.

I AM guest posting soon one a diabetes site about how I use the book Rufus Comes Home in my classroom. I’ll post about it once I know the details, and once I do, you will want to find your way over there if you are a teacher (or parent) and want a good resource for teaching your students (or other kids) about T1D.

Anyways, I hope that everyone has had an amazing summer! I can’t believe it is almost over (insert sadface).

Do you ever have one of those days where all of your diabetes gadgets need attention at once? Like, everything is beeping, at once, over and over and over? Well, today was one of those days. New sensor, new pod change, new batteries…everything needed something from me today.

On days like these, I usually find that I get really overwhelmed about everything that I have to do to handle my diabetes. Most days, it’s not too much to take care of, but when my “diabetes babies” all scream at me at the same time, I can get frustrated. And usually this frustration ends in some sad tears, but today, I decided I wanted to take a different approach (mostly because I just did my make-up, and sad tears are not a good look for me).

I recently switched over to the OmniPod. I was a faithful Minimed user for over 8 years, but after a few tubing mishaps, I decided that I needed a change. Luckily, I made the switch just as they were introducing their new smaller pods…and these smaller pods are just what I needed to PUMP up my attitude (get it…haha…sorry).

I love my new pump (as much as I can love anything that has to do with my diabetes), but as I was changing my site today, I thought of something. What if I used my pods as my inspiration? Some days, I look at my pod, and I’m reminded of just my diabetes (and all of the emotions that go with it). But I want to look at my pods and be reminded of all of the wonderful things that CAN go with diabetes. So, I decided I would start something fun-pod sayings, pod tattoos…whatever floats your boat! Basically, just take a pod and write down what you need to get you through that day, minute, hour…whatever! Please ignore the smudges and the terrible lighting. Markers are usually nicer to me.

I believe that we need a little support wherever we can get it, so why not get it from something that we use everyday?

And today, when all of my “diabetes babies” were crying and complaining, I said NO to sad tears and YES to a happier attitude!

Tell me…

Where do you get your inspiration? How do you handle your “diabetes babies?”

Thank you all for stopping by on my first day in the blog world! I’ve been reading blogs for many years, and I finally decided that I wanted to make one of my own for the world. I’ve been a Type 1 Diabetic for over 20 years (we are going on 21 years, actually), and I just needed to get my voice out there and connect with other T1Ds (plus anyone else who wanted to talk!)

I’m *hoping* that I will be able to share some of my tips for students and other teachers living with T1D.